24 Sep :Highlighting the pressing need to safeguard films, videos and sound recordings in India’s Cultural Institutions, several Indian and International Cultural Heritage Professionals, met at the National Museum Institute (NMI), here today to discuss possible strategies and solutions. The meeting was chaired Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki, Director- General, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Rome.
Delivering the key-note lecture, Ms. Dianne L. van der Reyden, Director (Preservation Directorate), Library of Congress, USA, said that Sound and Image records are threatened all over the world. Especially vulnerable is the early 20th century Sound and Image Heritage, which consists of Analog Material, such as Films, Negatives, Photographs, Audio and Video Cassettes. She particularly mentioned some of the strategies that Library of Congress has adopted to deal with United States Film and Sound Heritage. These include creation of a National Database for Digital Collections and a special cold storage unit for library’s analog collections. Several key Indian institutions were represented at this meeting. Doordarshan Archives, National Film Archive of India, American Institute of Indian Studies, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, National Archives of India. Representatives of Ford Foundation and UNESCO were also present at the meeting.
The meeting was hosted by National Museum Institute, a premier university dedicated to conservation, Museology and history of art. and was supported by ICCROM.
The meeting was aimed at creating awareness about Audio Video Preservation and Safeguarding of sound and image collections held within cultural heritage institutions and to identify the issues and challenges in preserving India’s sound and image heritage. The discussions during the meeting also led to a framework for planning and designing of ICCROM’s international course, SOIMA 2009: Safeguarding Sound and Image Collections, scheduled to be held in 2009 at New Delhi in partnership with National Museum Institute, New Delhi and other cultural institutions.